A race against time and the French train system...

So, leaving San Sebastian, we attempted to cut across France to make our way to Italy, final destination of this mad month of travel... We made the border crossing into France very easily, then attempted to make our way across the country to Carcassonne. Looked like a fairly straight line to us... but from Hendaye [on the Spanish border] we got sent north to Bayonne, further north to Bordeaux, then across to Toulouse, and finally on to Carcassonne itself... all of which took about five hours and 350-ish extra kilometres than if we were allowed to plan our own, considerably more direct, route. But after a tiring day fighting the French train system, followed by an hour long walk into the industrial zone of the town [and here we were thinking it was all medieval and pretty, not just a French version of Albany!] we made it to our accommodation by 10pm, just in time to be told that there was nowhere in town open to sell us anything for dinner, unless we wanted to head to the McDonalds across the carpark.... not, exactly, what you would call the best introduction to the beauty, enchantment, history and cuisine that the south of France is world famous for...

But we got up the next morning, refreshed and ready to go, and headed to the fortified city. Perched on a hill, this place is simply stunning even from a distance. It really looks like a true castle, but when you reach it, it's even better because it is actually the remains of an entire fortified city, with inner and outer walls and houses and alleyways and all that was necessary to run a town in...the middle ages.. or something. With turrets and high walls and arrow slits and towers all around, it's a quite spectacular experience. The city was technically struck off the list of official fortifications by Napoleon, but due to public outcry, demolition didn't get very far - thankfully! Otherwise, what would they have used as a set for that great work of art 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'? ;)

Following on from Carcassonne we travelled to Avignon, a picturesque medieval city on the bank of the Rhône river, and former official Papal residence in the fourteenth century. The main sight here was obviously the Palais des Papes or Palace of the Popes, a great hulking gothic building built on a natural rock formation in the mid-fourteenth century, with 5.5m thick walls and taking up over 2.5 acres...
And, as those stats might imply, it was suitably impressive. Avignon was a town of no account prior to it's selection as the new home of the papacy due to unrest and threats facing the Pope in Rome. And ever since, it has been able to dine out on the seven Popes who made it their home, and the legacy they left behind... The palace is vast and imposing, the largest gothic palace in Europe, and contains several chapels with original wall paintings superbly preserved from the 1340s. We were able to walk up to some of the top ramparts and get a spectacular view over the city, including the almost-equally-famous Pont Saint-Bénezet.
This was originally a bridge which spanned the Rhône and provided a crossing between Avignon and Villeneuve-lès-Avignon on the left bank of the river, built in the twelfth century. Unfortunately, the river moved a bit fast for their twelfth century architechture, and the bridge kept collapsing.. and they kept rebuilding it.. again and again.. till a flood in 1668 really walloped it and swept most of the bridge away, at which point it was given up as a lost cause. So now there are only four of the original twenty two arches of the bridge standing, jutting out into the river, making it a real 'bridge to nowhere'.

We also went for an evening walk to watch the sun set and see the bridge, palace, and city walls in the evening light, and it finally became clear just why so many people talk about retiring to the south of France for a life of luxury and relaxation. Avignon is a perfect picture-postcard example of all things quintessentially laid back [in that special 'French' kind of way..] ...so maybe give us another 40 years [and some mysteriously large windfall]...